Is there a Board Certification in Aesthetic Medicine?

There has been great discussion regarding the Board Certification of Aesthetic Medicine. Currently the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) does not offer a board certification in Aesthetic Medicine.

Also, the ABMS currently states that “antiaging is not a medical specialty,” and therefore no association or organization can officially be offering “board certification” in aesthetic medicine at this time.

Oddly, Botox, Juvederm, and cosmetic injections of PRP are not part of any of the board exams at the present time, including the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

Any private company, private company owned association or aesthetic association that offers “Board Certification” does so without the endorsement of the ABMS. “Physicians like to be board certified like they are in their own medical specialty however since the ABMS doesn’t offer Board Certification, many companies have decided to create their own. It’s not illegal for someone to make up their own board, but this is not the same board certification as in Family Medicine, Dermatology, Emergency Medicine or any other recognized board certification, this is just a made up one,” says IAPAM Executive-Director Jeff Russell. “We often hear from physicians who have spend thousands of dollars on obtaining these aesthetic medicine board certifications only to find out they aren’t recognized by anyone, its very disappointing to them to say the least,” continues Russell.

Of course, it was all made up in the beginning, so you can make something valuable by the training involved and the people who undergo that training. So, you could make up a board exam and then make it very valuable (even if not part of the ABMS system) by making the training valuable and by training top notch providers. Some may argue that the A4M board exams meet this criterion. But, the terminology of “board exam” could be misleading if abused and granted to an inferior training program.

The ABMS is a non-profit organization empowered to regulate the certification of medical specialties. Before the formation of the ABMS, a physician could advertise that he/she was a specialist in any medical arena. However, since its establishment, the ABMS “certification” is the gold standard for medical training and examinations, thereby ensuring a pre-eminent level of education, ethics and care across multiple medical specialties.

The ABMS clearly states that its mission is “to communicate to external stakeholders that ‘board certification’ is the major marker of quality for physicians’ performance and that the ABMS is recognized as the organization that establishes these standards and criteria.” That said, the ABMS also states that “anti-aging is not yet considered a medical speciality”, akin to plastic surgery or dermatology.

Also, at this time, the ABMS does not offer a “board certification” in aesthetic medicine.